JCB chief innovation and growth officer Tim Burnhope with the JCB hydrogen engine.
JCB’S £100 million ($186M) project to produce super-efficient hydrogen engines was recently given an international debut. A team of 150 engineers is working on the pioneering initiative to develop hydrogen combustion engines with more than 50 prototypes already manufactured at JCB’s UK engine plant. Source: Timberbiz
JCB Chairman Anthony Bamford is leading the project to develop JCB’s hydrogen technology.
“The JCB engineering team has made enormous strides in a short space of time to develop a hydrogen internal combustion engine. As the first construction equipment company to develop a fully working combustion engine fuelled by hydrogen, I’m delighted we are now able to present this technology on the international stage,” Lord Bamford said.
Prototype JCB hydrogen engines are already powering backhoe loader and Loadall telescopic handler machines.
JCB has also made a major breakthrough in proving the wider appeal of hydrogen combustion technology by installing one of the super-efficient hydrogen engines into a 7.5 tonne Mercedes truck.
JCB has also unveiled its very own designed and built mobile refuelling bowser to take the fuel to the machines. The bowser has enough hydrogen gas to fill 16 hydrogen backhoe loaders and can be transported either on the back of a modified JCB Fastrac tractor or on a trailer.
“The JCB engineering team has gone back to first principles to completely re-design the combustion process to work for hydrogen. In doing so they have achieved two major things: secured JCB’s place in history as the first construction equipment company to develop a fully working combustion engine fuelled by hydrogen and steered us towards the production of a landmark 50 hydrogen combustion engines,” Lord Bamford said.
JCB has also been at the forefront of electric technology development. While battery electric is suitable for smaller machines which do less hours and typically use less fuel, larger machines have a higher energy requirement. This would result in larger batteries, which would take longer to charge, making them less suitable for machines which work multiple daily shifts and do not have the available downtime to recharge.
In its search for a mobile fuel which can be taken to the machine, ensuring maximum uptime and fast refuelling, HVO, biogas, E-fuels, ammonia, and hydrogen have all come under the microscope.
“The majority of these alternative fuels require the production of hydrogen to make, so it makes perfect sense to use hydrogen in the first place because it is a clean zero carbon fuel which can be produced from renewable energy. Hydrogen also offers a potential solution to the challenge of batteries on larger machines; it allows for fast refuelling and is a mobile fuel solution, allowing fuel to be taken to the machine,” Lord Bamford said.
For the time being, JCB has come to the conclusion that fuel cells are too expensive, too complicated and not robust enough for construction and agricultural equipment.
“The unique combustion properties of hydrogen enable the hydrogen engine to deliver the same power, the same torque, and the same efficiency that powers JCB machines today, but in a zero-carbon way. Hydrogen combustion engines also offer other significant benefits.
“By leveraging diesel engine technology and components, they do not require rare earth elements and critically, combustion technology is already well proven on construction and agricultural equipment. It is a technology which is cost effective, robust, reliable, and well known throughout not just the construction and agricultural industry, but the whole world,” Lord Bamford said.
